All I Ever Wanted
by Izanami1
Summary: A short story describing what may have happened to Tatsuya after the end of Eternal Punishment. End of game spoilers, obviously. ^_^


_Standard disclaimer and author's notes: The Persona series, and all related characters, places and events are property of Atlus, not me. End of game spoilers for Eternal Punishment. This is my first story on fanfiction.net, so please read and review._

~

_It's so silent here…_

Tatsuya looked out across from the Rengedei ward at the bluish-gray rings shaped walls of the Xibalba, covered in ancient text, rotating slowly around the city. It was his only comfort in the decimated world. He missed watching the sunset from the shores of Konan, he missed seeing Araya Shrine as if what happened 10 years ago really never happened at all… and above all, he missed Maya. 

_Idiot! Why couldn't you have taken her with you…_

He rest against the charred banister of the Araya Shrine, and sighed. In the Collective Unconsciousness, she had wanted to come with him back to the "Other Side", tears in her beautiful plum eyes, wanting him to take her away with him. Like a good prince always rides into the sunset with his princess at the end of the fairy tale. This was no fairy tale, it was a nightmare that had become his reality, and he couldn't hide under his blankets from the demons as he did when he was a child. And this "princess" of his… Maya, she had tugged on his arm weakly, exhausted from battling a god, begging him "please… take me with you". He refused. Instead, he kissed her sweet, pouting cherry lips and knocked her out, turning away so that she wouldn't be able to follow him, to see what he did and do the same. In the world of Monado Mandala, strong thoughts become reality, and if she saw him leave, he desire to be with him could be so strong that she could follow him… but that couldn't happen. They needed her strength to return the city back to its normal state. Was the city even back on the ground? Would Maya hate him for what he did…? 

_I'm so cruel… I never gave her a real chance to say "goodbye"… some prince I turned out to be…_

All these thoughts, this pain of remembering that he didn't have to be so lonely was covered up by thoughts of "she doesn't belong on this side… she belongs on the side that all my friends sacrificed their memories for". None of these thoughts comforted him, even a little; all they did was remind him of how he had broken his promise to his friends… to Lisa, Jun, and Eikichi… promising he would give up his memories so that they could revive Maya, to turn back time and create a world that hadn't been destroyed. 

_And I couldn't keep my promise, either… now I'm all alone…___   


His soul smiled one last time at his friends and brother through the clear, bright blue energy that was created when a user summoned its Persona, and his soul departed. Traveling through the void back to the original side, he believed that there would be the city floating and the destroyed world around it, but there would also be people to help him land and rebuild the city. That he, with the help of generations to come, could restore things within time.

He was wrong.   
  


_ Maya could help me… I want to see Maya again…!  
  
_

He arrived at the Araya Shrine - the shrine of fate, and he looked around, expecting people in shock to see their "hero" again. What he saw was completely different. What Tatsuya saw wasn't the residents of Sumaru, rather he saw their empty shells, devoid of souls whose memory had been wiped of the incident 10 years ago, of Masquerade, Xibalba, and the end of the world and been transferred to their bodies on the side reverse to the one he was on.   
  


_There's nobody in this world but me… I'm… so… lonely…  
  
_

He had fought against the New World Order on that side alone, and didn't have his friends, but he was all right. Then, Maya, Ulala, Baofu, and his brother caught up to him, and he was happy to fight beside them, he learned to be able to depend on someone else. Now, he had nobody. Sure, there was a Velvet Room, but speaking to an old man with a large nose, a blind man, a woman who sung every time she spoke, and a man who invoked demons to paint tarot cards for the rest of his life wasn't an idea he favored. 

_Maya…   
  
_

Tatsuya lay against the cold ground, tears falling from his brown eyes and splashing against the bloodstained path. In this city-for-a-world, this one with limited power and even more limited food, Maya was all he desired. Tatsuya though that if he had Maya, he wouldn't need anything else. That he would kill to see her soft pale skin, her flowing raven hair, to hear her beautiful voice speak to him gently like she did when they were younger. He wanted her to love him, because he loved her. He sacrificed all he had for her, and he couldn't have her by his side, to protect her, to love her. To make sure she would die old, happy, and hopefully in his arms, not at the pierce of a spear created by rumor and wielded by a woman, manipulated by a god pretending to be her husband. _  
  
It's so unfair…   
  
_

He kneeled at the beach of Konan, looking at the sand rather than the rotating rings where the horizon was supposed to be. His hands traced along the ground, scraping her image into the sand. Tatsuya's tears fell along the poorly drawn face of Maya in the sand, and leaning forward, kissed the ground where her lips were portrayed. He lay beside the sketch, ran his hand over smooth sand that was her hair, and whispered where her ear would be "forgive me, Maya". Tatsuya looked once more at the only thing that could even resemble Maya, and stood at the very edge, looking out at the rings, and the broken world below. "It must be a hundred or more feet down…" The wind blew through his unkempt brown hair, and he turned, looking back at the portrait of Maya one last time. "Goodbye, my love…" 

He let himself fell backwards off the edge. 


End file.
